The Art of Sui Generis
by AliciaFreesia
Summary: Sui Generis. The Latin phrase literally meaning "of its own kind". Welcome to Alpha Academy where originality is a requirement and talent is as common as brown hair. Do you have what it takes to be an alpha? Apply and find out.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! I can say that I'm fairly new to fanfic writing so kudos to me for getting the courage to finally write up a new story! Don't worry, I've done my research and read a few of the Alpha Academy fanfics here to get a feel of things (: Well, I've seen that a lot of stories here go along the lines of "apply to be a character in Alpha Academy", so I thought "What a great way to start off!".**

**So yes, this is an AA story where you can apply as a character, or create a character for the story! Nope, your character does NOT have to reflect you as a person. Hopefully this idea isn't too overused….I really want to write out a story with good characters! PM me your characters or submit them in a review, either way works fine with me.**

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><p><em><strong>The Art of Sui Generis<strong>_

_Sui generis – the Latin phrase literally meaning "of its own kind". _

Welcome. Welcome to a world of the talented, the skilled and the unique. Welcome to Alpha Academy, where originality is a requirement and talent is as common as brown hair. Are you an _original_? Or are you just another _unoriginal_? Are you an _alpha_? Or are you just one of the million _betas_? There's only one way to find out. Alpha Academy only admits the best, the brightest and the most _original_, _unique_ and _exceptional_ individuals. Dare to dream? Apply to Alpha Academy, where only fifty females and fifty males will get the chance of their lives to be groomed as the new generation of _alphas_.

A young girl read the pale gold sheet of paper with shaking hands. Could she? Would she? _Dare_ she? She was talented, as she had been told. But was she talented _enough_? Maybe. Maybe not. There was only one way to find out. She lowered her eyes back to the sheet and read over the application.

_Name:_

_Hometown:_

_Alpha Track:_

_Physical Appearance:_

_Personality:_

_Family:_

_Friends:_

_Personal Background:_

_Alpha Qualities:_

_Alpha Motto:_

_Flaws:_

_Unique physical traits:_

_Give at least two reasons for you admittance into Alpha Academy?:_

_Is there anything you could contribute to Alpha Academy?:_

_Tell me, what makes you different than the other girls?:_

_Extra Info:_

The girl nodded as if in deep thought. She picked up her pen and set to work filling out the application. The next day, the golden application was being mailed to a mailbox where the Alpha Academy Admission Committee – handpicked by Shira – would then decide which final two-hundred applications would be sent to Shira Brazille herself.

A month later, the applications closed. Two months passed. Soon, golden envelopes were being mailed around the world to fifty lucky girls and fifty lucky boys. The chosen hundred would be soon boarding a personal PAPs sent to their nearest airport to transport them to Shira's new school, Alpha Academy.

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><p><strong>Will <strong>_**you**_** be one of the lucky hundred? Apply and find out.**

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><p><strong>PM me with questions, or simply drop of an application. Applications are accepted in the form of a PM or a review. Oh! Does anyone know what a "beta" is? Not in the alpha sense, but in the writing sense. <strong>

**Ciao,**

**- Alicia **


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi! It's me, Alicia, again! So here's the first chapter of my story, introducing Carson Lawrence - a girl with an Alpha Track in art. I personally think she's an adorable character...**

**Long A/N this time. So I figured out what a beta is, and does anyone want to be a beta for me? I've figured out a system which seems pretty cool. Now, everyone knows Google, right? Does everyone know Google Docs? If you don't then it's a cool thing where you can upload (or write) documents and "share" them with other users! Then the people you have "shared" it with can there on edit the document! I think it's kinda cool. So if anyone would like to be my beta, PM me and I'd fill you in more (: **

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><p><em><strong>The Art of Sui Generis<strong>_

_Sui Generis - the Latin phrase literally meaning "of its own kind"_

**CHAPTER ONE**

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><p>"Carson!" a shrill voice screeched from outside the house. "You were supposed to call me two hours ago so we could go to the mall!"<p>

A girl with fiery red hair pulled up high in a supertight ponytail huffed as she yanked the screened backdoor of the house and marched into a cluttered bedroom. Another girl with messy blonde hair twisted up in a loose bun held together by a slender paintbrush was busily painting away at a canvas strapped to an easel.

Carson Lawrence looked up from the easel which had a half painted scene of a lake on tendrils of hair were falling out of her mess of a bun and framed her delicate face.

"Hannah, the only mall in this area is two hours away," Carson said, slightly confused. She turned back to her painting and frowned. Carson lived in Merryville, Louisiana - a tiny countryside-esque town with a total population of 3,503. The only mall within reasonable distance was a two hour drive away.

"So? We need new outfits if we want to go into our freshman year of high school with a bang," exclaimed Hannah with a dramatic flourish.

Hannah was only of Carson's few friends and the complete opposite of Carson herself. Whereas Hannah was slender and tall with fiery red hair and a smattering of freckles across her face, Carson was petite with lightly tanned skin and pale blonde hair in messy waves. Hannah was currently wearing a cute floral patterned dress with a belt cinched at the waist and a pair of leather brown boots. All designer labels. Carson was currently wearing a pair of artfully faded dark grey jeans and a simple soft white flowy top. All splattered with colorful traces of paint. Hannah had been sent to Merryville to live with her batty aunt as punishment for "wild partying" at her old private boarding school. Carson had been born in Merryville and had never stepped a foot farther than the mall. Needless to say, the two girls were unalike as any could be.

"You mean _you_ need a new outfit," corrected Carson, adjusting her wide black framed glasses that Hannah had dubbed "cute nerd-chic".

Hannah shrugged her shoulders, then squinted critically at Carson. "You really should be thinking about getting contacts."

Carson rolled her eyes. Hannah had bugged her to exchange her glasses for contacts for months, ever since they had first become friends in the beginning of 8th grade. According to Hannah, the glasses hid her "pretty grey eyes".

"I mean, I know they look cute and look like a classier verson of the ones Taylor Swift wore in her music videos but I mean..."

Carson tuned Hannah out as she dipped her paintbrush into a small jar of green paint and began brushing the canvas lightly. She had long ago learned to simply nod and let Hannah roll with whatever topic she had decided to rant on. The mall trip was long forgotten.

"...which means we should go to the Kelly's!" concluded Hannah as she jumped off Carson's dark blue bed.

"Kelly's?" asked Carson. Kelly's Ice Cream Parlor was the popular hangout for most teens around their age and was the place to go if girls were simply looking for gossip or a good chat.

"What other good place is around here?" said Hannah rhetorically.

Twenty minutes later, Hannah had successfully dragged Carson out of the house and into her rickety old car that wheezed and coughed as it bounced down the bumpy dirt road that led away from Carson's house. Somehow, Hannah had convinced the police in Merryville that she was old enough to drive and had purchased an old car with a giant stack of cash the second she stepped foot in the town. Carson, unfortunately, wasn't lucky enough to have the money to do all that. As Hannah had declared, a girl "needed to get places on her own" - which was the sole reason Hannah had bought the car without a blink of an eye.

Carson's father was a manager at Merryville's Merchandise which was the store that supplied everything needed in a small hick town like Merryville. Carson lived with her father, and since her mother had died when Carson was three due to cancer, it had always just been Carson and her father.

"Omigosh Hannah!" a high-pitched and slightly nasally voice pierced through the air as Clarissa Gomez pushed her way through a clique of girls and hugged Hannah like they were best friends the second Hannah and Carson entered the crowded ice cream place.

"Heyyyy," beamed back Hannah, smiling back at Clarissa. Unlike Carson, Hannah knew how to play the games of the petty girls that were dubbed the "popular girls" at Merryville High. Hannah could smile sweetly and be Clarissa's "BFFy" while trash-talking Clarissa behind her back with Carson. Carson wondered if that was a trait that all popular pretty girls learned when they were little. Carson had no patience for that, not that Clarissa and her friends paid any attention to Carson anyway.

Hannah pulled Carson towards and empty booth near the back of Kelly's and threw the gum-chewing waitress a twenty as she ordered two vanilla sundaes.

"Gawd, I hate those bitches," Hannah said cheerfully as she snapped open her seven-hundred dollar purse with her french-manicured nails and applied lipgloss with a practiced hand.

"Mhm," nodded Carson, as she gazed towards Clarissa - who was currently situated on a booth with a group of boys including Carson's longtime crush, Josh.

"Have you gotten any letters from the schools you applied to?" asked Hannah, tossing her tube of lipgloss back into her purse. Hannah would be moving back to boarding school in Pennsylvania when school started and was the one that had pushed Carson to apply to hundreds of boarding schools asking for scholarships. Eastwood Academy, Hannah's own school, would hardly accept Carson but Hannah had somehow found plenty of other schools for Carson to apply to. One of which included a certain mysterious Alpha Academy.

"Here you go, girls," the waitress was back, snapping her gum obnoxiously and pushed the two sundaes towards Carson and Hannah. The waitress was obviously one of the high school graduates who were scrounging up enough money to get out of this town.

Carson twisted a strand of her hair around her fingers and resumed looking towards Clarissa, who had thrown her pale arm around Josh. Both were laughing. The familiar feeling of anger and hatred mixed into jealousy surged through her.

"Some, but I'm not sure I want to go to them," answered back Carson, only half paying attention.

Carson was an artist, a trait inherited from her mother. She had an extensive art portfolio - which she had taken advantage of and mailed copies of it to every boarding school she applied to. Paintings cluttered the attic of her small house and folders and folders of charcoal sketches and colored drawings filled an entire cabinet in her house.

She had gotten into several academies around the world, including a West Coast Prep in California, a Hyde Institute in South Carolina and a Manhattan School of Arts in New York. Hannah had suggested the Carson go to art school in New York.

But Carson was waiting, waiting for a certain gold envelope to arrive announcing her acceptance to the exclusive Alpha Academy. Alpha Academy's creator, Shira Brazille, had announced on TV that Alpha Academy only accept the most talented individuals. Only fifty girls and fifty boys all over the world would receive a shiny gold acceptance letter from Alpha Academy. The other million of hopefuls would receive a silver rejection letter. Carson seriously doubted if she would be accepted, but a girl can dream, can't she?

Laughter erupted from the other side of Kelly's. Hannah glanced up and caught Carson's grey eyes staring straight at Josh.

"Oh gawd, you _still_ like him?" Hannah shook her head. "You could do so much better."

"You mean he could do so much better than me?" Carson tossed back with a hint of bitterness.

But she couldn't blame Clarissa for being majorly friendly with Josh. She knew for a fact that Clarissa liked Marco, a sophomore with a penchant for football. Carson knew she wasn't one of "those girls" and never would be. Carson wouldn't be the type of girl to have many guy friends, for the simply reason that she was too shy. She wouldn't ever be the girl that could laugh easily around a crush and somehow wind up being "bestfriends" with the guy.

Heck, Carson could hardly blame any other girl for talking, or crushing on Josh. Carson had known Josh since sixth grade and had spoken about a grand total of three words to him in the full two years she had crushed on the guy. Once, when he asked her what page the homework was on in History (She had said "page fifty-eight"), and the other time when he had asked for her to pass the papers down the row (She had said "sure").

Carson was shy. The type of girl that always remained in the background. Her blonde hair would be pretty, if Carson bother to curl it into loose curls with Hannah's curling iron. Her wide dark grey eyes would stand out more if she had gotten rid of her big black-framed glasses. Her light pink lips would shine if she applied lipgloss on a daily basis. With her soft voice, small smile and expressive grey eyes that hid behind her glasses, Carson stood out at school as much as a rolly-polly in the dirt - that is, not at all. Her clothes were boring and drab, until Hannah had tossed Carson's entire wardrobe and filled it with her own designer clothes. Carson had chosen the plainest black jeans and a plain grey sweater - that she later found out slid off her shoulder constantly.

"Obviously not, girl," Hannah said. "Have you seen yourself? You're gorgeous."

Carson laughed. _Yeah, right. _Gorgeous was not a word commonly used to describe Carson. Okay-looking, normal and a occasional semi-cute were used to describe Carson. Yes, she had a decent nose, pretty hair and there wasn't anything wrong with her smile but the fact remained that Carson barely talked to guys and wasn't in the least bit social.

"Hannah!" Michelle, Clarissa's best friend, skipped up to their table. "We're having a back-to-school party in a few weeks! You'll come right?" She paid no attention to Carson.

Making a new year's resolution to talk more and be friendlier, Carson spoke up. "Hi Michelle."

She added a smile and a little wave.

"Uh hi..." Michelle trailed off looking at Carson awkwardly. "Are you new here?"

Carson bit her lip, she knew this was a bad idea. "Uh no." She left it at that.

"Ah-viously she's nawt new," snapped Hannah, her New York accent coming out even more when she was pissed.

"Oh sorry," said Michelle, not really caring. "So are you coming?" she said expectantly.

"_I'm_going to back to school in Pennsylvania, Michelle," said Hannah cuttingly.

"Ok," shrugged Michelle, not wanting to get in a fight with Hannah. "Bye."

Michelle left without another word, and Carson exhaled.

"I hate girls like her," gritted Carson. She had an especial dislike for Michelle, since she she knew that Michelle also had been crushing on Josh for a while. And it didn't hurt Michelle that Clarissa was her best friend, which meant unlimited access to hanging out with guys easily.

"Who cares?" Hannah flicked her long red ponytail back and stood up. "Let's go."

Hannah pulled up at the Lawrence's house and dropped Carson off. Carson took in a moment to admire the nature around her house. The one upside to living like this was the fact that Carson had a gorgeous lake right in front of her small house and a small dock that her father had built two years ago.

"Byeeee," called out Hannah as she reversed her car and it creaked out of distance. Carson yanked open the slightly rusty metal mailbox open as soon as she approached the house. A mess of envelopes tumbled out, and a handful of them were from several boarding schools.

Carrying the mail into the house and dumping them all out on the dining table, Carson grabbed a letter-opener and began opening the letters meticulously. Crests were emblazoned on many of them and several were acceptance letters from the hundreds of boarding schools that Carson had applied to.

Tossing a letter from Hazelwood Academy in Conneticut aside, Carson caught sight of a shiny gold envelope.

She flipped it over with shaking hands and saw the double AA encircled by a golden ring.

"No way..." she breathed with her grey eyes widening behind her glasses.

She grabbed the cheap pre-paid phone off the table and pressed Hannah's number.

"Hey Carson, I'm - "

Carson abruptly cut Hannah off, something she rarely did.

She stared at the envelope again and said in hesitating voice that conveyed her disbelief, "I...think I just got into Alpha Academy."

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><p><strong>Yepp. There's Carson. I'd love it if you guys gave me feedback on what you thought of her personality, the way I portrayed her and the general thought of her! <strong>

**Nope, I'm not looking for characters and if I DID accept one of your characters as a main character, you'll receive a PM from me! If you HAVE submitted a character and have not received a yes or no from me, don't worry! Your character is still under consideration as a main character! **

**Reviews are genuinely appreciated! I read every single one of them more than twice and I LOVE feedback and ideas! **

**Also, I would also like a beta (: Anyone? Anyone?**

**That's it! **

**Ciao, **

**Alicia**


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